


Just Because Something Burns Bright, Doesn't Mean It's Gonna Burn Forever

by july4thkisses



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Dean Winchester Angst, Dean Winchester and Sam Winchester Use Their Words, Freeform, Gen, I love that that's a tag?? lmao, Sam Winchester Angst, Supernatural - Freeform, it's ending and I'm emo, just general angst tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-02-13 15:14:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21496342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/july4thkisses/pseuds/july4thkisses
Summary: "Well," Sam said throatily, "Then it ends that way. But however it ends can't erase everything our story was before it came to a close, and you know that as damn well as I do. We saved the world, Dean." He paused. "That means something," he asserted. "It has to."Sam and Dean know that they've been living on borrowed time for quite a while now, and that the end is inevitably coming soon.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Just Because Something Burns Bright, Doesn't Mean It's Gonna Burn Forever

**Author's Note:**

> So Supernatural is ending. I haven't watched in a few seasons because, let's be honest, it's gone downhill, but I've still got such a soft spot for this show. I figured I'd write a sort of closure for Sam and Dean, 'cos they sure as hell deserve one.
> 
> Creds to The Front Bottoms for the lyric that this is titled after!

Dean hopped up onto the hood of the Impala, taking a seat next to Sam, who was leaning up against the windshield. The younger brother was gazing up at the bright dots of light that the stars provided to the endlessly vast expanse of indigo sky, like holes pricked into the lid of a jar so that the bugs inside could breathe. Dean hummed lightly as he rested his own back against the windshield of the car, sitting closer to Sam than was probably necessary. He couldn't help it--he didn't know how many of these kinds of nights they had left.

They were getting older, and they both knew it. They both knew that the life of a hunter didn't tend to be a long one. They knew that their lives were technically already supposed to have come to an end. They knew that what Dean had said all those years ago was true--_It ends bloody, or sad. That's just the life._ They knew that their time was running out. They knew they'd gotten more time than quite literally anyone in the universe had expected, and they knew that the inevitable fact of the matter was that the end was getting closer and closer with every passing second, and could hit at any moment. Like a meteor. Like an atomic bomb. Like Sam, landing on top of Dean when the older boy had broken into his dorm room all those years ago.

Every time Sam tried to talk about the end, Dean quickly shut him down, nonchalantly changing the subject to something entirely different. Sam wasn't an idiot; he knew what his brother was doing, but he let him do it anyway. He had a pretty fair idea of why Dean refused to talk about the end: he thought that if he didn't talk about it, it made it less real, somehow. It was the same thing that Dean had done when Sam had packed up and left for Stanford, leaving him behind. It had hurt. It had hurt worse than any bite or gouge or broken bone that Dean had ever attained during a hunt. He did his best not to say it out loud, though. In the entire time that Sam had been away, Dean had sent him two letters, neither with a return address. One had read _Merry Christmas. Hope you're doin okay. -Dean_. The other had simply been a cheap Hallmark birthday card with nothing written on it, but Sam had recognized the messy scrawl with which his address had been jotted down on the front of the envelope. It was extremely rare for Dean to admit to being hurt, or scared, or sad.

Which made it all the more intense when he looked over at Sam lying next to him and said "The fight's comin' to an end, Sammy."

"It's not over yet," Sam replied, eyes still fixed on the stars, giving his brother a chance to back out of the conversation he had just started; to go back to pretending.

Dean chuckled, but it wasn't a humorous laugh. Sam couldn't quite put his finger on the emotion that it conveyed. It sounded like nostalgia, like sadness, like reminiscing; all at the same time. It sounded like defeat, but it also sounded like triumph. It was as convoluted and confusing as Dean had been lately. "It's going to be over soon, though, isn't it? The end isn't far away. And if--_when_\--one of us dies, that's it this time. It's over. Donezo." Dean swallowed hard.

Sam's eyelids fluttered shut, and he thought for a moment before he replied. "Yeah," he said, and after the word had come out, he thought to himself that his voice had sounded the exact same way that Dean's laugh had. He wasn't surprised by this realization. "I dunno know when it's coming, but I know it's soon. Logically, it has to be--we've been evading death for such a long time, now. It's gotta end, but it doesn't have to end sad. Or bloody. I don't like to believe that it will."

"Doesn't matter what you _like to believe_, Sammy. I know how the story ends. We both do. We've seen it a dozen times before. Look at dad. Bobby. Charlie. Jo. Ellen. It ends bloody, or it ends sad." Dean shook his head. "That's just the way the story goes."

Sam cleared his throat, eyes opening once more, but no longer quite registering the constellations he had been so focused on. "Well," he said throatily, "Then it ends that way. But however it ends can't erase everything our story was before it came to a close, and you know that as damn well as I do. We saved the world, Dean." He paused. "That means something," he asserted. "It has to."

Dean was silent for a stretch of time as he tried to sort through the mass of thoughts and emotions that were inhabiting his brain. "What I said when Metatron shanked me with the angel blade still stands, you know." He inhaled shakily. "I'm proud of us."

Sam tore his eyes away from the sky and met Dean's gaze. He smiled softly. "Me too."


End file.
